Baseball Notebook: Greenwood Struggling At The Plate

Greenwood baseball coach Randy Gardner can’t put his finger on the Bulldogs’ power outage this season. Through 13 games, the Bulldogs have yet to hit a home run and the team’s offense is scoring half the runs per game than it did last season.

“We’ve had some underperformances from some of our better players and we’ve had to play some other players that weren’t ready, and that’s not a good combination,” Gardner said. “We’re accustomed to scoring a lot of runs.”

Prior to this season, Greenwood had averaged 8.7 runs per game in Gardner’s first five seasons as the coach. This season Greenwood is averaging 4.3 runs per game.

Greenwood (8-5, 2-2) squeezed out a 2-1 win against Southside Tuesday, despite getting just two hits.

“Our pitching has been really good and our defense has been really good,” Gardner said. “It’s good to be in the game, regardless of whether or not you’re scoring. It bit us when we played Parkview, because they were in the game because we couldn’t score any runs.”

Grizzlies In First

Northside baseball coach Brian Fry and the Grizzlies are in uncharted waters. The first-place Grizzlies travel to Conway today in hopes of adding to their 3-0 conference start.

Northside (5-4) beat Russellville, 5-2, on Tuesday behind the stellar pitching of Cade Sisemore (3-1). The Grizzlies don’t play at home again until they host Southside on April 9.

Fry said Grant Hood and Adam Richardson have been table setters for the middle of the lineup.

Pirates Pitch Perfect

Poteau got a perfect game Tuesday when the Pirates posted an 8-0 win against Cameron. Three pitchers - Jace Pitchford, Roger Barcheers and Jay Werner - combined for the perfect game in five innings.

The perfect game almost never happened as Pitchford nearly walked the first batter of the game.

“Pitchford started and went 3-0 on the first batter, and I’m sitting over there thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ because that’s what’s got us in trouble all year long has been walks,” Poteau coach Andy Perdue said. “But he came back and got the kid to pop up and after that, it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.”

Pitchford pitched the first two innings and struck out three. Barcheers pitched the third with one strikeout while Werner threw the last two innings and struck out five.

At the plate, Pitchford was 3-for-3 and was a home run away from hitting for the cycle. Perdue said Pitchford was on deck when the Pirates finished the game in the fifth with the run rule. Poteau also got a two-RBI home run in the second from Michael Didway, his fifth of the season.

With the win, the Pirates (12-2) have now won six straight. The first four wins in the streak came last week during Poteau’s annual wood bat tournament, as the Pirates beat Oktaha (3-2), Smithville (8-0), Plainview (3-0) and Seminole (10-2).

“I was really pleased with our effort,” Perdue said. “We played a little more small ball than I would have liked to play, but you’ve got to bunt and you’re not going to sit around and hit doubles and triples with those wood bats.”

Airedales Hopeful

It’s been hard for Alma baseball coach Kevin Edwards to get a grasp of his 2013 baseball team. The Airedales have played more opponents in the 7A/6A-West than in the 5A-West. Six of the team’s first nine opponents have been against 7A teams.

Alma (2-7, 1-1) travels to Morrilton today in hoping to continue its recent surge. Winning two of the last four games isn’t reason for celebration, but there is optimism.

“(Morrilton) can swing the bats and they have a lot of team speed,” Edwards said. “We’ve just got to go out and play and worry about ourselves. Our conference is tough, especially at the top, and if you don’t show up to play anybody can beat anybody.”

Senior Collin Ogilvie, who beat Clarksville in his last outing, will pitch in today’s doubleheader opener.

“He’s had one bad outing,” Edwards said. “He came in against Southside, in relief, and he wasn’t as sharp as he’s been. But for the most part, he’s pitched well, even in the games he lost against Benton and Heritage.”

Arms Race

Spiro has reeled off five straight wins and scored at least eight runs in four of those games. The Bulldogs won all three games last weekend in a 3A festival played on their home field by beating Wilburton (8-0), Hugo (16-0) and Beggs (6-5). Spiro also beat NOAA rival Stilwell on Tuesday, 8-3.

But coach Paul Croft said the main thing which has pleased him during the team’s winning streak has been the emergence of several pitchers as the Bulldogs had to rebuild their rotation due to graduation.

“Josh Woolly, Frank Solomon and Paden Dunn all got their first-ever high school wins Friday, Saturday and (Tuesday),” Croft said. “Josh got his (Tuesday) against Stilwell, Frank got his against Beggs and Paden got his against Wilburton so that was big for us, those kids (coming through) and taking some spots. … That’s going to be our deal, finding pitching to fill in for what we lost and those guys right there (came through) and did a pretty good job. Of course, I’ve got Quaylon (Griffith) back and Kelby Fowler, but finding three or four more pitchers is going to be big for us.”

The Bulldogs are now 10-3 overall and they are currently ranked No. 6 in 3A by OKRankings.com.

Ozark Back To 4A-4?

There’s realignment talk about Ozark being moved from the 4A-1 to its old stomping grounds in the 4A-4 when the Arkansas Activities Association releases enrollment numbers for the next reclassification cycle. Hillbillies baseball coach Matt Coleman would just as soon stay put — even though the 4A-1 has been a far superior baseball conference than the 4A-4.

“I like playing up there,” Coleman said. “They make us better. They’re got nice facilities and they care about it.”

The banged up Hillbillies have lost to Russellville (11-5) and Prairie Grove (10-2) this week, but hope to rebound against 4A-1 foe Berryville. Senior Toby Richard, who is considered one of the conference’s top players, hurt his foot earlier and won’t likely be able to pitch Friday, Coleman said.

“We’ve had a tough time here lately,” he said. “If we get to regionals, I like our chances.”

LCT Pairings Set

Earlier this week, the seeds for the annual LeFlore County Baseball Tournament were announced.

Poteau drew the top seed, while Spiro is second. Wister is the third seed, Heavener is fourth and Cameron — which serves as this season’s host site — is fifth.

The LCT begins on Monday at three sites, Cameron, Pocola and Heavener. At Cameron, Whitesboro and Panama will play at 4 p.m., with the winner to face Poteau at 6 p.m. Cameron then takes on Heavener at 8 p.m.

In Pocola on Monday, Pocola faces Arkoma at 4 p.m., with the winner to face Spiro at 6 p.m. Also at Heavener on Monday, Leflore and Howe square off at 4 p.m., with the winner moving on to face Wister at 6 p.m.

Games will also be held on Tuesday at those locations and there will also be games next Thursday at Poteau, but all other games from next Thursday until the championship game will take place at Cameron. No games will be held on Wednesday.